Help!!! Gas bill.

ashli_2

I have just phoned Npower to tell them I will be moving in a few weeks time and to find out roughly what I will owe them when I settle my account.

I pay both gas and electric by monthly direct debit, I knew I owed approx £200, which is the remainder of a bill that I accumulated before I switched to DD a few years ago that I have been paying off bit by bit.


As far as I knew, my gas account was in credit by a few pounds. When I gave her the meter reading, I was informed that they have been estimating my gas supply since nov 2005, and though I have been paying £40 by DD since then, I owe them £700. :eek:


Is there anything I can do? Are they allowed to mismanage my account so badly and then leave me with such a whopping bill? Suerly it is their responsibility to ensure that the figures they are working on are at least remotely accurate, they have never asked me for a meter reading or given me any indication that my account was due a review.


We have just bought and are in the middle of rennovating our first home, after finding this out this morning I am tempted to throw myself in one of Sheffield's overflowing rivers as the chances of me finding £700 to pay this bill are next to nothing.

Cardew

Firstly. Yes you are liable for the bill.

There is no statutory requirement for any utility company to read your meters in that time frame, and estimated meter readings are allowed.

You should bear in mind that it is not to their advantage to allow a big debit balance to build up as they, in effect, are giving you an interest free loan.

You can normally negotiate to repay the debit balance over the time the debt has built up. – 2 years in your case. There have been some cases reported where a reduction in the amount owed has been given as a goodwill gesture.

However as you have notified NPower you intend to move, you might not get much co-operation in this respect.

I don’t wish to appear unsympathetic, but you must take some responsibility for not checking the meter readings on your bills.(e.g. what you term “mismanage”) In the small print(which I appreciate few of us read) it normally asks you to inform them if the estimated readings are incorrect.

It will be no consolation to you that this is a very common scenario.

BexTech

Yes, maybe a lesson learnt.

Read your meters every month or every week and note them on the calendar.

When a bill arrives check the meter readings they have quoted with the actual meter readings, then phone up or go online and give correct readings if incorrect.

tripled

Unfortunately utility companies are only obliged to read the meter every two years, although they will usually try to read them more often. It would have stated on the bills the readings they were using were estimates.

I can only suggest, as Cardew mentioned, you try to agree a payment scheme with them.